Eleven NATO allies will deploy 2,800 troops to Poland next week for a major military exercise as Warsaw battles a constitutional crisis over its highest court.
The exercise is organized by the "coalition of the willing," a group of around 30 countries acting outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The drill will test command structures and coordination between air, land and naval forces. France is providing the bulk of the contingent alongside the United Kingdom, Belgium and Poland. Ground troops will train in Poland, aircraft will fly from Romania, and Turkey will lead a maritime exercise. According to exercise commander Tom Bateman, the goal is to show the force can deploy quickly and to signal to Kyiv and Washington that European security guarantees for Ukraine are credible.
The exercise coincides with Prime Minister Donald Tusk's push to restore the rule of law at the Constitutional Tribunal. Last Friday, seven judges elected by parliament entered the Warsaw court escorted by state protection, and Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska suspended the tribunal's president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy. President Karol Nawrocki cut short a visit to Senegal and rushed back to Warsaw, accusing the government of "illegal actions." Tusk insists his coalition is restoring legality after the PiS government's judicial overhaul.
The standoff has drawn thousands of protesters. On Tuesday, demonstrators carrying burning grave candles mourned rule-of-law violations from the PiS era of 2015 to 2023. Days earlier, a right-wing mob tried to storm the court shouting "coup." Riot police guarded the building. During a public National Security Council session, Nawrocki ordered cameras removed just as Tusk and his ministers were to respond.
The constitutional crisis has erupted just as Poland deepens its role as NATO's eastern bulwark. Defense spending is projected at 4.8 percent of GDP in 2026, NATO's highest. The East Shield project is fortifying roughly 800 kilometers of borders with Belarus and Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, with German combat engineers helping build anti-tank obstacles. Poland secured about €43.7 billion from the EU's €150 billion SAFE defense program, the largest allocation. Nawrocki and PiS have challenged the arrangement as limiting purchases of American equipment.
On Tuesday, eight tribunal judges met publicly. They approved the court's 2027 budget and established an internal disciplinary court to decide whether to strip immunity from the two suspended presidents. They also pledged to clear roughly 1,200 pending cases. General Prosecutor Waldemar Żurek presented criminal charges against the suspended leaders. Five PiS-aligned judges refused to attend, calling the meeting "unlawful."
An old video of Tusk from September 2024 is circulating online to falsely claim German soldiers are deployed in Poland during the crisis.
